Amata plans $1.6 billion industrial complex in VN

“This is going to be a city, not just an industrial complex,” Somhatai Panichewa, chief executive officer of Amata VN and president of Amata (Vietnam) Joint Stock Company, said yesterday.

Besides manufacturing, the complex would cater to the tourism industry, as it is located next to Halong Bay, a Unesco World Heritage Site and popular travel destination. 

Construction of the initial stage of the 10-phase project is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year. The first phase is estimated to cost about $60 million and is expected to be completed before the end of 2018.

Amata has been investing in Vietnam for 20 years in the Amata Bien Hoa industrial park in Bien Hoa City, the provincial capital of Dong Nai, 35 kilometres northeast of Ho Chi Minh City in the south of the country.

Since the group is required to shoulder 70 per cent of the investment under its joint venture agreement, it will fork out about $12 million, or 20 per cent of the $60 million, for the first investment budget of the initial phase – a high-tech industrial park to attract the expected boom of electronic production in Vietnam and the movement of Japan’s production bases from China.

Most of the $12 billion will come from an initial public offering expected at the end of the next quarter after gaining the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The complex is also expected to attract other industries and facilities in the latter stages such as research and development centres, logistic services, exhibition centres and scientific laboratories.

The project will have three zones – a 4,000-hectare industrial complex with about 1,000 companies, a 1,500ha research and development and housing estate, and a 640ha integrated facilities complex with a hospital, school, logistics operators, exhibition centres, shopping centres, food courts and recreation areas.

“In all, some 300,000 people are expected to be working there and they are expected to generate roughly $5 billion worth of revenue per year,” she said. About 1 million visitors are expected each year to visit the third zone, which consists of logistic services and exhibition centres.

Amata is moving north because Japanese manufacturers are expected to bring their production bases there next year. The area is close to China and Japanese firms can enjoy the benefits of low labour costs in Vietnam while still selling products to China under the |mainland’s free trade agreement with Asean, known as the Asean|+6 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

LG Corporation has already transferred its television production base from Thailand and the Samsung Group is expected to invest $22 billion in the coming years to move its smart-phone production base, she said.

Hanoi has already built a motorway to Quang Ninh because of the Japanese’s investment in a deep-sea port, Luach Huyan, in the province, while the domestic airport named Cat-Bi is expected to be upgraded to an international airport in the coming year.

It is not far from the current Noi Bai international airport, she added.